The Halloween Spectacle
by Del Rion
Summary: Pepper walks into Tony's workshop to find the space somewhat transformed. (Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series.)


**Story Info**

**Title:** The Halloween Spectacle

**Author:** Del Rion

**Fandom:** Iron Man (MCU)

**Timeline:** pre-Iron Man 2

**Genre:** Humor, general

**Rating:** K+ / FRC

**Characters:** J.A.R.V.I.S., Pepper Potts, Tony Stark (Iron Man), Tony's bots (DUM-E and U).

**Summary:** Pepper walks into Tony's workshop to find the space somewhat transformed.  
Complete. Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series.

**Written for:** Fills a prompt on my table (sci-fi, MCU/Tony Stark) at _fc-smorgasbord_ (square: mad scientist).

**Warnings:** Mentioned/implied drinking.

**Disclaimer:** Iron Man and Marvel Cinematic Universe, including characters and everything else, belong to Marvel, Marvel Studios, Jon Favreau, and Paramount Pictures. In short: I own nothing; this is pure fiction created to entertain likeminded fans for no profit whatsoever.

**Beta:** Mythra (mythras-fire)

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**Story and status:** Below you see the writing process of the story. If there is no text after the title, then it is finished and checked. Possible updates shall be marked after the title.

**The Halloween Spectacle**

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. . .

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**The Halloween Spectacle**

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**Spring of 2009**

Pepper Potts entered her personal code into the digital keypad, then allowed the same area to scan her palm for further identification before the door unlocked and she was allowed to enter.

In Tony's workshop the lights were flickering, and she glanced around with alarm, looking for signs of a fire, an explosion, or any such danger that may have caused damage – or worse, that she might be walking right into any one of those aforementioned scenarios taking place.

"Mwa ha haa!" Tony bellowed in an uncharacteristically booming voice, suddenly standing up from behind a desk, waving something in his hands. One of them was a chemistry vial, the other a special screw driver. He was wearing a white lab coat that looked like it had survived catching fire several times, or being spilt upon with corrosive liquid. His hair looked like he hadn't brushed it in a week.

Somewhere further away, a sound almost like thunder appeared, though Pepper was instantly taken back to her old school plays where the sound effect was produced by a sheet of metal. The lights flickered again, and smoke drifted across the floor towards her feet.

"It's alive!" Tony boomed, and from the table in front of him one of his armors rose up slowly, arms first, chest and eyes glowing ominously in the flickering lights and smoke – which Pepper now spotted one of the bots directing with a small fan it was holding in its grasp.

The other bot was holding the thin sheet of metal, giving it a shake, producing the sound effect of thunder once more.

_"Sir, Miss Potts has arrived,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. announced, voice even more long-suffering than usual.

"Hey, Pep," Tony greeted in his normal voice, eyes locating Pepper as if only now realizing she was there.

The armor in front of him paused, sitting on the table, arms still extended in front of it.

"What are you doing?" Pepper asked. She really didn't want to, but it was part of her job. Maybe. Probably not, if she was being completely honest with herself.

"Oh, we're just enacting a classic," Tony shrugged. "For Halloween."

"That was several months ago," Pepper told him, suddenly quite afraid Tony was having a breakdown of some kind. She checked for any excessive amounts of empty bottles of alcohol that might be lying around.

"I know," Tony groaned in a complaint that ended up almost whiny. "I got so wasted on the eve of Halloween, after I caused that tiny little accident with the new armor prototype, and I completely missed out on the big event. The boys and I," he motioned at the bots, "were planning on a theme party down here, but obviously I kind of… snoozed through the whole thing."

"Okay," Pepper replied, since she had no idea what else to say. That is, until a horrible vision popped into her head: "Were you planning on going out to some party tonight, dressed like that? And if so, please don't tell me you were going to dress up one of your armors as Frankenstein's monster."

"Well, I thought about it, but J.A.R.V.I.S.'s remote control is still a bit shaky, and the armor can't quite support itself the way I want it to. Can't have it toppling over on someone. So embarrassing, and it's also quite heavy." Tony reached out to the shadows and smoke behind him and lifted a beaker to his lips, sucking up greenish, sticky-looking liquid through a straw.

"That's one lawsuit you haven't managed to acquire," Pepper muttered quietly.

The bot holding the metal sheet shook it again, clearly not understanding the play was over, or at least paused.

"Did you need something?" Tony asked then, as if just realizing it was his assistant who had walked into his Mad Scientist fantasyland.

"It can wait," Pepper decided.

"Do you want something to drink?" Tony asked, gesturing towards Pepper with his green sludge of a drink.

She tried to suppress a shudder and failed. "No," she refused, then turned around before he could ask her to stay and join the party.

As the door swooshed shut behind her, it was like returning from the Land of Oz to the real world. Breathing in the smoke-free air, Pepper went up the stairs and made a note on her phone's calendar to get back to Tony about the things on today's agenda the next day. Hopefully by then, Halloween would be over.

**The End**


End file.
